1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless terminal devices and more particularly to wireless terminal devices having systems for easier interaction between the user and the screen.
2. Discussion of the Background
Portable communication devices, such as wireless telephones, have become very popular and increasingly are able to provide much more than mere telephone access. Such devices have been developed which allow a user to access communication networks such as the Internet from their wireless device.
Such a system has been described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/607,637 and 09/659,416 which describe a mobile display appliance (MDA) system and are entitled “Network with Mobile Terminals as Browsers Having Wireless Access to the Internet and Method for Using Same” which allow access to the Internet from a variety of wireless terminals. In addition to individual access, a server also provides a family level of interaction so that a prearranged group of terminals may all be allowed access to a common group of information as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/609,581 entitled “Network with Mobile Terminals Having Wireless Access to the Internet and Method for Doing Same”. Accordingly, an individual user may be recognized as having access not only to his or her own information, but to common information provided to the family.
An example of such a system is shown in FIG. 1, where the network 10 includes terminals 20, 20a and 20b, each coupled over a wireless system to an access point 22, 42 and a PC 21 coupled by a wired connection 31 to access point 22. The access point is coupled to a network for example owned by an operator of an Internet service provider (ISP) 24, 44, which is coupled to the Internet 26. In addition, the network server, a server of an ISP 24 is coupled to a mobile display appliance server 28 that provides the users with specific services and features through their wireless terminals. Alternatively, access points 22, 44 can be connected directly to mobile display appliance server 28 via any network connection.
It is also possible that a terminal 20c, outside the service area of access point 22, may be connected to mobile display appliance server 28 by being in the vicinity of another access point 42, which then is connected to mobile display appliance server 28 through for example ISP 44, and the Internet or another network.
The access point 22 is also coupled to a global unit or server of a product vendor 34. The address of a global address server 36 is known by the terminal. A direct connection is established between a terminal and a network access point or server of the ISP 24. According to one alternative to the addressing scheme of the system of FIG. 1, an address of mobile display appliance server 28 is received by the terminal and the network node, from which a request to global address server 36 is made. After the terminal 20, 20a-20c has knowledge of the address of the mobile display appliance server 28, a direct link can be made from the terminal to the server 28. The Internet address of the global unit or product vendor 34 and the global address server 36 is permanently contained in the memory of each terminal 20. The global address server 36 is a place from which all the terminals 20-20c may fetch the Internet address of their respective remote mobile display appliance server 28. The initial configuration information and/or the configuration of a direct link is loaded down to the terminal 20-20c from the remote server 36. This information can be updated for example from the server of an ISP, an access service provider or a mobile access provider from time to time. The configuration and the addressing of the terminal 20-20c in the system as well as any direct address link configured to an user interface of the terminal is also transmitted to a remote server when changed. The global unit or product vendor 34 includes a global address server 36 and a global upgrade server 38. The vendor of the system terminal is connected either directly via a network, for example the Internet, to each remote mobile display appliance server 28 or connected in a more centralized way first to the server of the terminal vendor and from there to each server 28. The advantage of having the terminals store the Internet address of the global address server 36 is that if a terminal 20-20c is relocated near another access point 22, 42, then the terminal may still obtain the Internet access location of mobile display appliance server 28 simply by knowing the Internet address of the global address server 36. It would also be possible, to instead have a system where the address of the mobile display appliance server 28 is stored in the terminal 20-20c and the memory is updated as needed. The mobile display appliance server 28 authenticates, using the unique identity of the terminal 20-20c, the access privileges of the terminal to be a shared or to have a group access privileges. Accordingly, the terminal 20-20c is authenticated and logged onto the mobile display appliance server 28 to begin a shared session at a shared or group level.
After the terminal has been authenticated and the terminal 20-20c has received, the downloaded configuration information of services, user interface and links are configured concerning the services and the main view of the user interface. Then the terminal 20-20c is ready to be used. Each terminal 20-20c includes a unique identification (ID). The IDs are reserved and used by members belonging to the same group. Each unique identification of a group of the terminals 20-20c is recognized in the same mobile display appliance server 28 to be used by the members of the group. Every member belonging to a respective group may use the same terminal. Each of the terminals including a unique terminal identification is switched on. Each terminal belonging to the same group makes a request from the global address server 36. The address of the mobile display appliance server 28, in which the applications and services are stored, are ready to be used. Then, each of the terminals 20-20c belonging to the same group obtains the address of the same mobile display appliance server 28 to which each of the terminals is connected. Thus, the user can now access services or retrieve information from the mobile display appliance server 28 or the Internet 26.
In addition to the terminal accessing and using the services of the group, the terminals 20-20c can be used to access services of an individual user.
The user profile and terminal specific user interface configuration settings, as well as possible software components or program updates to the mobile display appliance server 28, are controlled and performed by a configuration tool manager of a management server (not illustrated). Configuration change may affect both the mobile display appliance server 28 and/or the terminal 20-20c. In order for the user to initiate an individual session and retrieve individual information, the user must use the terminal 20-20c and provide further authentication to the mobile display appliance server 28 to gain an access at the individual level. Either at a shared/group or at individual level, the user is able to retrieve the information related to the group of users as well as browsing the Internet 26 to retrieve information.
The mobile terminal to be used can be ordinary PC 21 and a wireless modem for establishing a wireless connection via a mobile service operator to the mobile display appliance server 28, which has capability to be in connection to the network. A mobile terminal 20-20c can be a terminal described in patent application Ser. Nos. 09/607,637, 09/659,416 and 09/609,581.
FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of a terminal 20-20c, which shows as a calendar application on the display operating within the system shown in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the terminal 20-20c includes a display 70, a user interface (UI) framework 72, a browser 74, a driver 76, and processor 78. Each element is shown here for reference only, and the location of each element is not intended to be a defined location of one element relative to the other elements. For example, the user interface 72 may be in or part of the display, or independent of the display.
When the user accesses a service, like a calendar service, or retrieves information from the mobile display appliance server 28, the browser 74 is the program product that is in charge of conveying the service specific information and the main view of the selected application such as calendar service from the mobile display appliance server 28 to the terminal 20-20c. 
FIG. 3 is a more detailed block diagram representation of the server of the system of the network shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 3, the mobile display appliance server 28 includes a support server 46, a response handler or application server 48, a network application server 50, and a directory server 52. As would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the referenced connections do not depict the physical connections between the elements and are merely logical connections. The support server 46 provides services oriented towards enabling and supporting the services provided to the terminals 20-20c. The support server 46 includes an upgrade service unit 54, a bookmark service database unit 55, a login services unit 56, a bookmark database 57, a profile services unit 58, a client log unit 59 for collecting information about clients, an advertisement services unit 60, a system log unit 61 for collecting information about events in the mobile display appliance server 28 from the client log unit 59, an administrative services unit 62, a defined services unit 64, and a directory client unit 66.
Still referring to FIG. 3, the upgrade services unit 54 is dedicated to controlled software upgrades of the software for the support server 46. Updates are transmitted from the global upgrade server 38 to the upgrade service unit 54. The login services unit 56 provides for authentication of the user and the terminals 20-20c that is being used to access the services, based on information provided by the client unit 66. Additionally, the login services unit 56 is also responsible for log-off activities, such as individual session termination. The profile services unit 58 provides for modifying a user's profile information. This modification of a user's profile may include modifying the group and individual information and preferences. The administration services unit 62 provides for administration of the support server 46 and the application server 48. The software product updates are transmitted from the global upgrade server 38 and its configuration tool manager (not illustrated) to the upgrade service unit 54 and its configuration tool client (not illustrated). The configuration tool client is the functional unit that acts when any configuration tool manager of a management server in FIG. 1 (not illustrated) upgrades any software component, full executable software program or re-configures configuration parameters; application and system parameters.
In FIG. 1 a firewall 40 protects the connection to and from the global unit 34. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the firewall unit 40 functions to provide secured access to the global address server 36 and the global upgrade server 38.
In FIG. 3 the advertisement services unit 60 provides for the mobile display appliance server 28 to tailor advertisements to the user and the terminals 20-20c according to the user's profile information. The defined services unit 64 is a classification of “other services” containing items such as bookmark management services, help services, and log services, name management services, and general management services. The directory client unit 66 is coupled to the directory server 52 to provide client verification.
In FIG. 3 the remote register management and control unit 67 knows the closest or the global terminal validation register address. The control unit 67 may also interpret the answer received from the register address. Typically, during browser login action of the terminals 20-20c, the mobile display appliance server 28 individually manages the client specific parameters 68. The management information from one terminal browser session is stored and used after a request is received from an identified terminal 20. Other requests received from terminals 20-20c involving different identification information (IDs) use browser client specific parameters (68a, 68b) which may result in, for instance, seeking of bookmarks for the terminals when an action request originated from the terminals.
In FIG. 1. the terminals 20-20c may have access through proper authentication and from service purchases of a third party publications which are available from a vendor 33, such as news related information found in magazine publications or from daily newspapers.
The user interface of the terminals 20-20c the user alternative selections of how to select a command and a target of the command in a main menu of the terminal view (the same that is presented when the terminal is powered on) or in an application for example a calendar. In the terminals 20-20c there may exist a hard button, which the user may press at any time using any service of the system which then results in the next view being changed to the main family view (or main individual view if the PC 21 is used having a connection to access point 22 via wire connection 31).
Depending on the service application in use, a user selection and a command from the terminal interface may affect the information of the service used by the group members. The authenticated group member may change for example the group calendar content according to given command in such a way that other authorized members of the same group obtain the latest group calendar information from the mobile display appliance server 28.
Thus, by utilizing this MDA system, it is possible to obtain information on a wireless device through a server and the Internet. Because the content is being handled by different systems having different protocols, it is necessary to convert the content from one system to another as the data is being passed back and forth. Thus, each page being viewed is defined as an XML page template, which is parsed with general MDA components. The information is then passed by way of a localization menu, which generates the view into the users defined language. Next, in the localization script, parsing results finally in a HTML page ready for the terminal.
Thus, the three previous stages are used to correct the fourth stage final conversion, which feeds in the actual content of the application like e-mail or calendar content. The result is an HTML page, which is presented in the terminals 20-20c. 
This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/607,369, filed on Jun. 30, 2000, entitled “User Interface Constructed from Components Created from a Set of Tags”, which provides a method for generating display instructions by converting templates containing style information into a final format, which converts for example data created in one language into a second language. The invention provides a method for converting one machine-readable language for example XML or XSL into another for example HTML, by applying instructions to style templates. The invention provides a high level construct created from a set of lower lever tags. Those tags may be grouped and the new grouping be represented as a new tag, that may be referred to as a component. A man machine interface (MMI) of a terminal, may be created by using constructs. The tags can be understood to be system components for example in XSL format
When the user operates the wireless device to obtain information through the Internet, it is often necessary or possible to use a menu arrangement in order to select various possibilities on the screen. Such selection is done easily on a non-portable device such as a PC, where a mouse or other device may be utilized to control a cursor on the screen.
FIG. 4 shows a screen, which is available using a Microsoft Windows arrangement. It is noted that the selected icon (not illustrated) for Microsoft Word was highlighted and as a result a drop down menu has been made available so that different options may be selected. The menu is made available by placing the cursor on the Microsoft Word icon and right clicking on the mouse. However, in a portable wireless device, the need for additional space and weight makes the use of a mouse impractical. Likewise, because of the limited number of buttons on the device, the use of keys to control the cursor is also difficult. Accordingly, it is desirable to have systems, which are friendly to the user and simple to operate on a wireless device when selecting options from a menu.